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3.11.2011

Trash to Treasure - OMTWI

So, did you guess which one was me? My dress form, Marj, and I will be moving on to week two! I'm really excited. The way I see it, I won either way, I got a dress form that matches me and cost only $12, a small fraction of what a real one would cost. Plus, I saved some things from a landfill.

If you didn't get a chance to meet Marj, let me introduce you:

Meet Marj

Mannequin: All Re-purposed Junk

What do you get when you cross 4 feet of foam, 3 empty juice bottles, 2 toilet paper tubes and 1 broken floor lamp?

A pile of junk, but dress it all up in a snug denim shirt, an itchy bra and a worn out belt and MARJ is ready to party!

I really wanted a dress form but they are pretty cost prohibitive. The trash to treasure challenge provided me the opportunity to upcycle these cast offs into something useful.

Using the juice bottles as a core, I added layers of foam to match my dimensions. Next came her undergarments: a bra I can't stand (stuffed with floral foam and plastic shopping bags) and a past it's prime belt to cinch her waist.

One look at the stained and preshrunk gap shirt at the thrift store and I knew it would be snug and unflattering on me... in other words: perfect! I altered it slightly to act as Marj's skin. Her shoulders were shaped last using toilet paper tubes half covered in more foam.

Finally I pinned her shut (so I can adjust her size should I change slightly in the future). I removed the electrical wires from the lamp and converted the top portion into a finial by hot gluing it to one of the juice bottle caps. The lamp pole simply slides through the spouts of the juice bottles and the finial is attached at the neck to hold it in place.

In total she cost $12: $6 for the foam and $2 for the shirt at the thrift store. $3 for a roll of duct tape and $1 for the floral foam shapes that fill out the bra. The additional piece of denim was left over from a reupholstering project and the bottles and tubes were in my recycling bins. The bra and belt had been on their way to the trash.

The biggest deal is I now have a pin-able dress form that is exactly my size! Time to make myself a new wardrobe!

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